Considerable marketing effort is involved in getting an applicant to log on to a credit card website and apply for a credit card. In addition to advertising, credit cards that allow a user to apply for a card over the Internet in some cases pay significant referral fees to a party that refers an applicant to the site. Given the effort and cost required to attract an applicant to begin an on-line credit card application, it is very important that, if at all possible, the applicant be encouraged to complete the process.
Various reasons exist why an applicant might cancel out of a credit card application that has already been started. The applicant may become confused during the process and may cancel when the applicant is unable to discern how to follow certain instructions. Also, an applicant may reject an offer for credit because of some attribute of the credit offer that the applicant finds unacceptable. Whatever the reason that the applicant does not complete the process and receive the credit card, the loss to the marketer of the credit card is significant. It would be very helpful if an on line credit card application system could be improved to reduce the number of applicants that stop the process short of obtaining a credit card.